Historic Marker Asked For Tavern Site

New Lenox — A building, that according to local legend once sheltered runaway slaves, has been razed to make room for a subdivision, but history buffs want to make sure the memory is preserved.

Elizabeth Leechof New Lenox Township wants a section of land south of U.S. Highway 30 and just east of West Circle Drive set aside and designated by a historical marker "just so (the memory) won't be gone forever" when builders start work on the proposed Bluestone Bay subdivision.

Will County will hold a public hearing on the issue at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Will County Forest Preserve District office in Joliet.

According to Leech and Toni Evans Neuschwanderof Plainfield, research indicates the Old Brick Tavern, a landmark on the south side of U.S. 30 until it was torn down about six months ago, was a way station on the underground railroad. The underground railroad was an informal network of abolitionists who guided men, women and children fleeing Southern slaveholders to freedom.

In the pre-Civil War era, the tavern was owned by Samuel Haven, a Congregationalist deacon and "a very strong abolitionist," Leech said.

She said the caves that have been discovered under area farms offer informal confirmation of the popular belief that slaves escaped to freedom by hiding in caves connected to the tavern building.

Neuschwander, a researcher who spent many hours tracking the property's history in the Will County Courthouse, said there are documents that lend credence to the legend of Haven as a radical preacher and active abolitionist.

Despite its name, the Old Brick Tavern wasn't the 19th-Century equivalent of the corner bar, Neuschwander said.

"It was more of a stopping place for travelers," she said, where they could break their journey with a meal and a night's rest.

The comings and goings of other travelers would have formed a perfect cover for the clandestine activities of underground railroaders, she said.

The Old Brick Tavern was a local landmark for many years, she said. "This building was there before the town of New Lenox."

And its construction was noteworthy, too, she said, because brick was "very uncommon" as a local building material in the mid-1800s. Courthouse records show the land on which the Old Brick Tavern stood was owned by Haven in 1862, she said. The researcher also found an indictment against Peter Cushing of Crete, Haven and his two sons, Dwight and Carlos, on charges of aiding fugitive slaves.

"My opinion is that the Haven boys, Dwight and Carlos, were helping (slaves escape) and got caught," she said.

Criteria cited by Leech in her application to make the property a historical landmark include claims the Old Tavern site has a "character, interest and value referring to the development, heritage and culture (of the region); was the scene of "significant" historical events; and has a "unique location" on a major travel route that makes it especially suitable for landmark status.

If a pending annexation agreement between property owner Simon Beemsterboer and Force Ten, the company developing Bluestone Bay, goes through, the land will be outside the county's jurisdiction. But a clause in the annexation agreement requires developers to secure Illinois Historic Preservation Agency approval before they begin building.